ROMANS 14:5-12

MATTHEW 18-21-35

Sermon with kids – 10:30a.m.

September 11, 2005

“As we forgive those ...”

(I invite the kids to come to the front of the church, in front of the altar, where there is a table with a cookie tin on it, from under which a $1 bill in “Monopoly” money is peeking out.)

Come up and see what we have here. What’s this? (One of the kids picks up the $1 bill.) If this is outside, what do you think is inside of this tin? (Responses.) Who’d like to open it and find out? (A couple of volunteers open the tin and bring out the wads of play money inside.) So, how much play money did we find outside of the tin? (“One.”) How much is inside? (We start counting. Finally, I say.) There’s over $26,000 in play money here, and some of it is in really big bills (I hold up oversize bills). If this (I hold up the $1 bill) were real money, what could I buy with it? (Responses.) If this (I hold up all the rest of the money) were real money, what could I buy with it? (Responses.)

You could buy a nice car for $26,000 in real money.

If you owed someone this much (I hold up the $1 bill) in real money, do you think you might be able to pay it off by raking leaves or doing some extra chores? (Responses.) If you owed some one this much (I hold up all the rest of the money) in real money, do you think you might be able to pay it off by raking leaves or doing some extra chores? (Responses.)

Jesus told a story like this in today’s second Bible story. Someone owed the King a gazillion dollars, and when he couldn’t pay the King back, he asked the King to forgive the debt – and the King did. Do you think that made the man happy? (Responses.) Grateful? (Responses.) What would have been the best way the man could have shown how grateful he was? (Responses.)

Jesus says that the best way to show how grateful we are for being forgiven is to forgive others. But the man in the story decided not to forgive another man who owed him a much smaller amount. That made the King very angry, and he took the man who refused to forgive and put him in jail forever.

Forgiving someone else doesn’t mean what they did was O.K., it means that you decide not to get back at them. That is sometimes hard. We need to be strong and stand up for our rights, and not to try to “get back” at everybody who’s ever said or done anything mean to us. If we’re mean to them back, then we get more meanness, and more, and more. And also, God reminds us how much God has forgiven us. The amount God has forgiven us is like this much (stack of money) while the amount we have to forgive is like this ($1 bill).

So when you say your prayers, remember that part of The Lord’s Prayer when we say to God, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church